Whitewashing* with Kubo Shimai

Me and Kubo Shimai

June 10, 2013

Transfer weeks are always a whirlwind of craziness. 

This past week was good. Got everything wrapped up in Shimogamo. I do love that place. I`m sad I had to leave. I am especially sad I had to leave A*** Shimai. I love her so much! 

Friday we woke up early did the big companion shuffle and me and Kubo Shimai headed off to our area. 

We came into so blessed! The Sisters who were here before us worked so hard and we have a lot going on. 

We even have a sister who is going to get baptized this Sunday. We are so excited. 

On Friday we went and met with her. She is so SOLID! Wow. She met with the missionaries about 10 years ago but then got really busy with work and had to stop. 

But then about a month ago she felt like she needed to start meeting with them again. So she went online, found the closest church, and called the missionaries. She has no problems and can`t wait to be baptized! Wow!! Truly there are prepared people waiting to hear this beautiful message! 

The rest of the week was basically trying to get a hold of ward members and investigators and just trying to plan and sort everything out. Whitewashing always brings such adventures. 

The ward is good. We actually share a building with the area next to ours. It`s weird! I had forgotten what it was like to have 2 wards going to the same building at the same time. It`s not as big as I had anticipated. I counted around 35 people in Sacrament meeting which is a change from the 70-80 in Shimogamo. But they all seem really nice and I am excited to work with them. 

Things with Kubo Shimai are going well. It`s definitely different having a Nihonjin companion. While we are contacting, or even talking with members, even when I talk they look at her to translate and expound on what I am saying. Haha. I know my Japanese isn`t awesome, but it worked just fine when I didn`t have a Japanese companion. People understood what I was saying. I guess just the Asian face makes them feel more comfortable. 

Kubo Shimai`s English is pretty good. She wants to get better at English, and I want to get better at Japanese, so we generally speak English in the apartment and Japanese outside. Although honestly, Japanese is becoming more comfortable than English so I sometimes just slip into Japanese in the apartment accidentally. 

We get a long pretty well, but things are definitely at a different pace. They have slowed down a lot. I have just been blessed with full throttle, hard working companions in the past. Slowing down is a new experience. 

I`ll get used to it soon I guess. 

We are going to start doing exchanges this week with some of the younger sister missionaries. I am way excited to work with them! Missionary work is awesome! 

Although I did have a little panic attack when I realized that this week I have been a missionary for a year! What? Wow. That went by so fast. I can hardly believe it!! 

Well just quickly to wrap up. President Zinke recently came out with a new mission training plan. Something he wants us to focus on as a mission. It`s called `Second Grade Simple`. The gist is to try and teach more simply so that our investigators can understand us better. 

As I was studying the training plan a little bit I was reading something that we, as members of the church, have read over and over again. It`s written a few times in the scriptures. The Lord will give us `line upon line, precept upon precept`. As I read that I realized that I have no idea what a precept is. So I looked up the definition. It is `a rule about how to behave or what to think`. And I had this epiphany: God is a Behaviorist! I LOVE BEHAVIORISM!! That is what I studied in school, did at my job, and what I am going to continue doing after my mission. 

In behaviorism there is a concept called chaining or sequencing. I`ll give an example of when you would use it. It might be easier to understand. 

For example, if you wanted to teach a kid how to get dressed by himself, you would help him put on all of his clothes. You would do that a few times. Then you would help him put all of his clothes on, except for his shoes. You would do that until he could put on his shoes by himself. Then you would help him put on all of his clothes except for his socks and shoes. Do that until he mastered that skill. Then you would continue going backwards until he could do it all by himself. 

You don`t, however, move on to the socks until he has completely mastered the shoes. Even if it takes a month for him to learn. You don`t move on. 

Each of those steps is a precept. The Lord gives us just a little bit to try us and see if we could do what He has asked. Once we have shown Him that we `learned` it, then He will allow us to put on our `socks`. 

Sometimes this can be a very slow and arduous process. But in the end, it is well worth the learning process.

So we should do this with our investigators. We should teach them a little bit. Line upon line. Precept upon precept. And we should not move on until they have fully understood that task. Because if they can`t understand how to put on their shoes, or how to pray, nothing else is going to work. You can keep `teaching` them new concepts, but they won`t learn it until they have mastered the first step. 

That was kind of long, but I just got so excited about it. Haha. I`m such a nerd. 

Well I love you all so much!! 

-Dobson Shimai 

*Whitewashing is when two missionaries go into a new area together

A Nihonjin Companion-Finally!!!

Me at the Shimogamo Shrine

June 3, 2013

Wow! What a whirlwind of a week! I`m still kind of like, what just happened?

Well to start off, I went to Kobe on Tuesday for the `Leadership Counsel`. I traveled in with my Zone Leaders. They`re awesome Elders...but it was so weird not having a companion. I didn`t like it!

But the training was really good. All the zone leaders were poking jokes at us all day. They are sad that it is no longer Zone Leader Counsel and they said that the `brother feeling` is gone now that there are Shimai. We got a little bit of training in regards to our position, but not a whole lot.  Honestly it`s because President Zinke doesn`t really know what we are supposed to be doing. He showed us all the information he received from the church. It was one piece of paper with about 8 bullet points. So we are pioneering it.

It will be an adventure for all who are involved. But basically because there are so many new shimai coming in there are going to be a lot of younger missionaries together. Sisters don`t normally have the chance to go on exchanges (I`ve only been on one so far), which are great learning experiences. So basically me and my companion are in charge of 1/2 of the sisters in the mission. And we are going to have an exchange with every sister at least once a transfer. That`s a bit of a daunting task for just 2 companionships. So we are actually going to have to start going on exchanges twice a week! Crazy! (I`ll get to who my new companion is in a minute)

The rest of the week was good. Wednesday we didn`t have a lot of finding time but the Lord showed us that you don`t need a lot to have miracles. We were doing a little bit of streeting around Kyoto University.  We had 5 minutes before we had to go. We made a contact and at first the girl really didn`t seem interested. But, we started talking about her relationship with God and I asked her if she wanted to hear more. She said yes and then asked if it could be right then. Of course we excitedly agreed. We sat down on a bench in this little secluded shady corner at the University and started talking to her about her relationship with God　 After we said something she would think about it, be quiet, then state back to us in her own words what we had just said. Then she would take that to the next step and teach herself more doctrine. For example, `So, because I am God`s child, He loves me. Ok. That means I am special to Him...right? But everyone is God`s child. So that must mean that God loves everyone. And that everyone is special to God. Wow. God is really awesome.` 

Ya. He`s pretty awesome!

I just love watching the Spirit work on people. It`s like their spirit is saying, `yes yes, yes! You finally are remembering!!` So cool! She`s one of our new investigators. Can`t wait to meet with her again.

Thursday was a little interesting. We have this couple that has been coming to English Class. They are from Iran. Neither of them speak Japanese. The husband is a Doctoral student at Kyoto University and so his English is pretty good. They have been coming to help out the wife. Well recently Lee Shimai and I have felt like we need to invite them to church. We planned on doing it this past week. We did and they said they would go.

Then the husband said he had written a paper in English and was wondering if we could help him edit it. We thought this was a perfect foot in the door to meet with them, help them, and eventually lead the discussion to religion. We set up a time to meet them and help him edit his paper. Ya. I didn`t realize the `paper` he wanted us to edit was his doctoral thesis!  Oh wow. my brain still hurts thinking about it. It took a lot longer than we had expected, and we didn`t get all the way finished.

But we showed his wife the pictures of the temples on LDS.org and she got so excited. We gave her one of our pass along cards with the Salt Lake Temple on it. When she saw it she put her to her heart and said, `Can I keep this forever?` Yes. Yes you can!

They came to church on Sunday which was so great! At the end the wife looked at us and said, `I just...love you. two.` We love you too!!! She just has such a big heart and I love her so much! The husband is really nice but his ideas about religion are that you just accept all religion if it`s good. We`ll work on that.

But I fully anticipate them to be the first Stake President and Stake Relief Society president in Iran. One day...

The rest of the week was good. A little crazy. We tried to build our relationship with M*** Shimai. We haven`t seen her for a while. We thought that if we took it easy and just went out to lunch with her it would allow us to be able to meet with her more frequently. We finally got a hold of her and away we went. It was a reality wake up call. I guess you could say it was fun. But unfortunately I think she saw it as just hanging out with her friends. Yes we are her friends. And yes it is fun to hang out with your friends. But afterwards I just felt empty. Not because we did anything bad, just because we weren`t doing what missionaries do. It made me realize how lucky i am to be a missionary. I don`t want to go home and go back to that feeling. I want to feel like this forever!!

Mom and Dad, are you ok if I never come home? You could just come visit me. :)

Basically that was my week.

Oh ya. I almost forgot transfer calls! Haha. Got transfer calls this morning. I am going to Okamachi (It’s in Osaka) and white washing (New Area, New Comp, No Investigator Pool)! My new companion is Kubo Shimai. Yay! My first Nihonjin (Japanese) companion. I am way excited! I can`t wait for the Japanese help. Hansen Shimai said that she corrects your Japanese a lot. Perfect!  That is what i am looking for! I am still not sure which Shimai I am going to be in charge of, but I am ready to get to work!

I love you all so much!!

-Dobson Shimai

P.S. I might have cried the other day when I realized that Anderson Shimai goes home tomorrow. If you see her, say hi for me!!

A Call To Be A Sister Leader

May 27, 2013

Wow! A mission is just a really long roller coaster. This week we started climbing up again to the top of the hill. 

To start off. We really have been praying and working to find new investigators. Especially a family. I LOVE teaching families. Well Tuesday we looked at our week. We realized we had no lessons set up and none of our investigators were contacting us. We weren`t sure what we were going to do so we prayed and prayed and tried to get some revelation. We felt like we needed to go outside the church in the afternoon and offer people church tours. We had done it once before but it wasn`t super successful. But we decided to try it again.

We stopped a lot of people but no one was interested. Finally 5 minutes before we were going to go we stopped a cute lady riding a mammachatty. We told her who we were and that we were offering church tours. We asked her if she would like one. She said, `sure!` We were both pleasantly surprised. She said she lives pretty close to the church and sees everyone come together every Sunday and she has always wondered what they all do. 

So we showed her around the whole church. She seemed to like it. We decided to end with the chapel and teach a lesson there. 

When we walked into the chapel I felt like we were walking into the temple. 

It got so quiet. And my heart feels like it does when I am in the temple. Oh how I miss that feeling!! We sat down and just sat there for a couple of minutes. We didn`t say anything. We just let the Spirit work on her. And it did. Her face softened and she had this hungering look in her eyes. Then we started slowly introducing God. 

I asked her if she believed in God. She quickly said no. I was going to start teaching but then I felt like I needed to just be quiet. So I was. Then after 15 seconds she said, `but I do believe in a higher power`. Instantly I thought of Alma and Aaron and how they were teaching King Lamoni and his father. These people are the same. They have grown up without knowing the true nature of God. But they do have a piece of truth. What those 2 awesome missionaries did was try to take the truth that they did have and connect it into the whole truth. We testified that that higher power was God. And that He was actually there. And that He loved her. We were quiet again.

Tears started welling up in her eyes. We talked about how He wants her and her two kids (ages 2 and 4) to live with Him forever. We gently explained how we, as missionaries, can teach her how to do that. I then asked her if that is something she would be interested in hearing more about. She was quiet for almost a whole minute. But it felt longer. Her head was dropped and you could really tell she was soaking it all in. Then she looked up at me with tears in her eyes and said, `teach me how to do that.` YAY!!!! A FAMILY!! I am seriously so happy!! We are meeting with her on tomorrow and I can`t wait to see her start progressing! God truly does answer our prayers. 

But that was only the first way He kindly answered. 

Thursday we had a big conference. Elder Aoyagi from the 70 came and spoke to us. It was really good. Learned a lot about loving the people and becoming a more effective tool in the hands of the Lord. I also got to play the flute for a musical number. It felt so good!! Oh how I miss my flute!! 

Anyways. When we got home on Thursday we didn`t have a bunch of time but we decided to make some calls from the area book. Calling old investigators and asking them if they`d be interested in meeting with us again. The first lady we called answered the phone. I told her who I was. She got all excited and said, `Oh! Are you the ones who go to church every week? I want to go again! I can`t talk right now but call me back and I`ll come to church!` Success in the first call! She wasn`t able to come this week because she had work. But she`s going to try and come next week. 

We also talked with a college aged girl. She said that she wants to meet the missionaries again! She said she also lives close to the church and wants to meet there. Sweet!! 

Saturday as we were out streeting at night we ran into a super cute girl. She has never met the missionaries before but is interested in our message. She said she wanted to meet again. She lives pretty far from the church. So I told her we could meet her at a closer place. She said that was ok because she really wanted to see our church! We have an appointment with her this week as well. 

Obviously we were so happy about all of this success. 

But then on Sunday we had another miracle! 

We met another Chinese PI a couple of weeks ago. She said she wanted to  come to our church and see what it was like. But wasn`t able to last week  because of work. We invited her for this past Sunday. She promised she would come. Sure enough she did! After sacrament meeting we taught her a brief lesson before she had to go to work. She said she has been to a Christian church a couple of times in China with her Grandma. (That in and of itself is a miracle!) She was really impressed with it and wants to learn more. We also did a little bit of explaining about God. When we talked about how much God loves her she got all teary eyed and said, `ya...He does.` We have another lesson with her as well. I am seriously so excited! The Lord has been blessing us so much recently! 

I am so excited to teach all of these lessons. 

Well I was until I got a phone call from President Zinke last night. At first I was really confused because transfer calls are next week. He told me that a lot of changes are going on in the mission. He then told me that they are now implementing the new Sister Leadership position. The Sister Training Leader. I am not sure all what it entails. There are going to be 4 of us. Hansen Shimai is also one! Yay! I hope we get to be companions again. That would be SWEET!! I have to go into Kobe tomorrow and get trained. I am excited to know more. But I am sad to not teach the 3 lessons we have set up tomorrow. Lee Shimai will go and teach them with Davis Shimai and Ishizawa Shimai. 

A member took us to yakisoba and okonamiyaki. So yummy!!

President did say that he is worried about who he is going to have training the new sisters coming in. He told me that he was planning on having all 4 of us train 2 new sisters at a time. But now we can`t. He did say this is the will of the Lord. I am not sure what is going to happen. But I am way excited! I am going full throttle for my last 4 transfers! Nothing is getting the way of Dobson Shimai! Watch out Japan!!!! 

In other news: I got proposed to by the Elder`s 55 year old investigator at English Class. Haha. `You. Beautiful. Me not married. dakara (because of that) Married shimasho! (let`s get married)` 

I can also ride a bike with no hands. I can`t go very far yet. But I am practicing. My record is 17 pedals. :) 

Well I love you all so much! I hope you are enjoying the quickly approaching summer. Boy is it hot here!  Everyone here keeps saying that Kyoto is one of the hottest places because we are surrounded by mountains, so we can`t get the ocean breeze to cool us off. yay....

Well! Bye bye! 

-Dobson Shimai